Day: 057
Date: Tuesday, 02 July 2024
Start: Jones Gulch
Finish: Officers Gulch
Daily Kilometres: 37.0
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 1684.0
Weather: Cold and foggy early, clearing to a cool/mild and mostly sunny day.
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Pop tarts/Muesli
Lunch: Snacks
Dinner: Egg salad sandwich/ Chicken salad sandwich, chips.
Aches: Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: After a long climb in fog through soggy meadows and damp forest, the fog dissipated and the sun appeared just as we emerged above the treeline for the last couple of kilometres to Kokymo Pass (12024’). We then had eight kilometres of beautiful views in many directions as we crossed two more high points, Elk Ridge (12281’) and Searle Pass (12045’), without dropping below 11900’. It was superb walking.
Lowlight: Nothing in particular.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
A mighty thunderstorm interrupted our sleep in the small hours with vividly bright lightning and thunder which shook the ground beneath our sleeping bags. We were glad we were camped at a relatively low altitude (9700’) and deep in the forest.
By the time we woke at 5am, the rain had stopped and the tent was relatively dry. We were hiking by soon after 6am on a cold dank overcast morning, first along a forest road, but then through very wet undergrowth before we began our foggy climb to Kokymo Pass. We stopped for a breakfast break at the alpine treeline and the fog kindly disappeared for the last part of our ascent. We then stayed well above the treeline for 8km, enjoying expansive crystal-clear views.
The early afternoon comprised a gradual descent through pretty pine forest and alongside Guller Creek before we reached the back of the Copper Mountain ski resort. We then descended through the ski fields into the busy village and made our way to a gas station where we bought drinks and an icecream plus sandwiches and chips for dinner.
We saw a lot of hikers during the day, most hiking some, or all, of the Colorado Trail. We even saw a couple of fully-loaded mountain bikers doing the same trail. That would be a tough gig!
Our most memorable encounter was with a hiker we had got to know on the Appalachian Trail last year. Julie was quick to recognize him and we had a good chat.
At Copper Mountain, we chose to leave the CDT and follow the Vail-Frisco Recreation Path as an alternate we had read about in our navigation app. The path follows Tenmile Creek downstream through a spectacular gorge which, unfortunately, is also the route of the noisy Interstate 70 Highway.
We chose this route because it saves us some time tomorrow and is relatively flat. We will rejoin the CDT in a couple of days. The CDT is known as a make-your-own adventure trail, with many alternate route opportunities. Our goal is to walk a continuous path from Mexico to Canada, using the official CDT most of the way (nobody hikes the exact CDT the whole way), but to use alternates where it makes sense for safety or time-saving reasons. Dave's original schedule had us reaching the Canadian border at Chief Mountain in mid-October, but we know that border crossing closes for the winter on 30 September, so we would like to get there by then. So far we have made up about ten days on the schedule, but need to make up about another week if possible.
After following the recreation path for about an hour from Copper Mountain, we found a spot to camp between the creek and the highway at 6pm, where we think we will not be easily seen. With the highway so close, it's going to be a noisy night.
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